Artemis II astronauts held their first press conference since returning to Earth after a historic flyby of the Moon. At a news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Thursday, April 16, astronaut Jeremy Hansen described the “infinitely small but very powerful feeling” he had aboard the Orion spacecraft. The first manned flight around the moon in more than half a century since Apollo 17 was not easy.
Jeremy Hansen said, “I had a sense of fragility and a sense of smallness, infinitesimally small, yet a very strong feeling as a human being, as a group.”
Toilet problems aboard the Orion spacecraft
Meanwhile, Commander Reid Wiseman revealed some of the problems the crew faced when using the spacecraft’s toilet during spaceflight. He even reflected on the close bond his colleagues had formed during their space flight.
Elaborating on the toilet problem the astronauts encountered aboard the Orion spacecraft, Reid Wiseman said: “I just want to say that it was 100% flawless, it was a great toilet. The toilet worked great. Where we had a problem, and it was, it was a problem, sure, is that our primary vent line, which takes up, you know, when you go to the bathroom, it’s good, but in the toilet, when the liquid came out of the bottom toilets, it’s clogged up in our vent line and our tank only holds, you know, maybe, maybe, I’m guessing, like under 10 urinals.”
He added: “For the first two days of the mission, it was fun watching that thing get ejected. I mean, it’s an interesting thing to see out of the window. It’s like a billion little, tiny pieces of ice going into deep space.”
Reid Wiseman reflects on the 695,081-mile journey
He went on to suggest that the engineers who made it should be proud of themselves, saying: “For the great engineers who made that toilet, I don’t want them to hang their heads low. They should hang it very high.”
Reflecting on the 695,081-mile trip around the moon with 3 other members, he said, “We started as friends and came back as best friends.”
While on the Artemis II mission, the commander was homesick mid-flight and said, “You just want to hold your kids and you want them to know you’re safe.” Reid Wiseman, who shares two daughters with his late wife Carroll, fondly recalled the space mission, saying: “Being 252,000 miles away from home was the most majestic and amazing thing the human eye will ever see.
After a 10-day voyage, the astronauts celebrated their return to Houston to mark the 56th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 13. According to NASA’s latest plan, Artemis IV will follow in 2028, landing two astronauts near the moon’s south pole.
